As the population of older adults continues to grow, there is increasing need to explore how technology-enhanced recreation can support well-being. While Generative AI (GenAI) shows promise in this area, its role in recreational activities for older adults remains underexplored. We report on a two-year engagement with a suburban Japanese aging community aimed at identifying design considerations for image-based GenAI-supported recreational activities. Through four workshops conducted using a Research-through-Design approach—individual prompting, collective prompting, prompt guessing, and curating prompts—we examined how different forms of participation shaped engagement with GenAI. Our findings suggest that although older adults show clear interest in image-based GenAI, it becomes more meaningful when embedded in culturally recognizable practices and socially mediated infrastructures, rather than framed primarily as an individual creativity or literacy tool. Based on these insights, we discuss implications for integrating GenAI into meaningful community-based recreational activities for older adults.

As everyday photography becomes faster, more automated, and increasingly frictionless, image-making is often oriented toward the efficient production of visual outcomes. This paper examines cyanotype as a form of slow technology for older adults, asking how the intervals within cyanotype practice support reflection and meaning-making. Based on four workshops in a suburban Japanese aging community, we show how the process of selecting, arranging, exposing, rinsing, and sharing cyanotype prints transformed waiting into shared attention, material uncertainty into personal interpretation, and finished prints into socially meaningful objects. Drawing on the Japanese concept of ma and Benjamin’s notion of aura, we argue that cyanotype’s value lies in the temporal, material, and relational conditions through which images gradually emerge. The study contributes an empirical account of how legacy photographic technologies can support reflective creative practice in later life, and suggests the continuing value of slowness in an era increasingly shaped by fast-paced technology.

Figure 1: On the left: Participants crafting during the workshop for event organizers.In the middle: The round table setup for the data physicalization workshop.On the right: A group photo from the second workshop with participants and researchers holding their completed crafts.